Lark Publishing LLC Anastasia

In this fantasy,kind of retelling of Anatasia, I say kind of because it’s not an exact retelling of her story more of inspired by, we follow two POVs one mostly of Anatasia. The youngest daughter of the Romanov court. The other pov we follow is Damien a Cossack rebel, who ends up as a ward to the Romanovs. In this world it’s filled with magic and there is tons of different types from fire welding to scrying. I had a really hard time putting this one down, you get swept up in the court of the Romanovs before Rasputin enters the picture. You get to see his rise through the court, which is alarmingly fast. I love the twist this book makes with the fantasy elements. In fact it had my jaw hitting the floor during one scene.There is a Romantasy element to this book with Anya and Damien, they are so entertaining with a forbidden romance aspect. I would say this has a mild spicy rating, it’s a couple of chapters. I was crying by the end of this one and I honestly really just loved how the story unfolded. Would recommend this one if you love Anastasia story with a bit of twist 🖤✨Make sure to look up warnings or triggers before reading ✨

if you think this is even close to the animated movie you are sadly mistakenNo lost memoryNo Grandma looking for the lost princessNo Dimitry "gasp"but we do get Damien :)you can divide this book into two halves1- the first half (mostly from chapter 1 till 29) could fall under the YA. It tells in DETAILS the background story of the Romanove's and Young Anastasia in a fantasy settingbut this should not be considered in any way a Historical fantasy, although it draws little elements from history.TBH, I think this is the part where most ppl would stop reading. there were too many unnecessary characters and storylines that really stretched the bookyou could easily cut out 300 pages from it and it still wouldn't matteralso you could read few chapters here to get an understanding of the world building then skip to the juicy partin this part, we see a young sheltered Anastasia surrounded by her loved ones with only the duty of the court hanging around her shouldersher relationship with Damien is also described and could be a slow burn if you wish2- The second part (from chapter 30 till the end) jumps quickly to a Dark fantasy Romance. more violence, heartbreak, gore, romance and spicy scenes (little Anya grows up)its where Anastasia, the princess we want, is seen with all her glory. Fighting her demons, reclaiming her throne, and asserting her status alongside her love Damienthe second part will definitely be a 5 stars (even with the little misinformation here and there)i loved that they made Rasputin a Vampire sucking the life of RussiaI loved that Anya (btw only Damien called her that) got her family back and became the TsarI loved how she won the hearts of the Cossacks"i charged her up but she illuminated everyone around her. I loved my people. To her, everyone was her people"I loved how she came to her power and used itThe actionthe qoutosTHE LOVE BETWEEN ANYA AND DAMIEN OH BABY!"I'd rather be her ghost than have her be mine again"

patience is absolutely key with this book, it’s massive! the first half really sets the whole world of anastasia—going into great detail to give you a vivid image of the setting. the illustrations are gorgeous! they really help to visualise the world sophie has created. i would say this is more fantasy than romance, a lot of world building. i love the whole idea of this world—felt very nostalgic. this is not an anastasia retellingthis one is definitely for you fantasy lovers, you will absolutely love it! took me a little while to get into it, my brain does take a little longer to kick in for fantasy books, but once i was in (around halfway through) i fell for anastasia and damien! plot twists you didn’t see coming, and a rollercoaster of emotions. my favourite parts were always the chapters with both anastasia and damien in them, they’re just the cutest! also, the illustrations of damien—SO HOT.

So over a year ago or so I was scrolling on tik tok and came upon a dueted video. It was Sophie Lark (the author) dueting this video of a girl wanting someone to write a book of the retelling of Anastasia. I immediately was curious and interested because Anastasia is one of my all-time favorite movies. So I followed Sophie immediately because I wanted to read this book. I waited all of this time and checked her tik tok multiple times a week to see the progress that she was making with this book. I commented and even got feedback from the author which made me ecstatic. I love when authors communicate with their readers. And then finally a couple of weeks back she announced the date that it would be ready to pre-order and you bet your butt I checked amazon several times a day and pre-ordered the paperback ASAP. I hadn't read any of her previous books so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Now I will say that I plan on reading every single one of her books. They will fill my shelves. Sophie is an amazing author and retold this story in a new and amazing way.I'm not even on to my review of the book itself haha :)I'm not gonna lie I was a little biased about this book just because I knew that it would be different than the movie and boy was it. I mean come on, vampires, VAMPIRES!!!!!! What can get any better than that? I was not expecting anything remotely related to vampires when I first started reading. Yes, I expected magic but not vampires. My jaw hit the floor at the wedding part. I was not at all expecting that. SOOO many emotions went through my head and all through my body when that all went down. It was like I was watching the movie all over again. The book had so many aspects from the movie but yet was so different from the movie. It was crazy and this book was my best and all-time favorite of all the books I've read this year. I am although a little sad that I can't add this amazing book to my Goodreads. I would have loved to write another review for that app.It took me less than two days to read this book. I never wanted to put it down. The words, the drawings, THE DRAWINGS MISS SOPHIE WERE AMAZING. They might have been my favorite part of the book. Usually, when I read a book I picture the characters how I want to picture them. In this book, I pictured the characters just how they were described which never happens to me. This just shows that this book was amazing and I would love to erase it from my mind and read it over and over and over again. But wouldn't we all like to do that?I loved every part of this book even the bad parts. I was crushed after the wedding scene but literally screamed when I read that she had been able to travel back in time and warn her family. I want Damien for myself because dangggg was he an amazing man and boy did he love Anastasia. I wish a man would go to war for me but you know that's why I read books because fictional men are better than actual men.Okay my review is very long and I doubt anyone will read this but I don't care. I love this book and will probably read it again and again. I'm happy to boost the reviews and give Sophie the recognition that she definitely deserves for this book because WOW.

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Characters: 5/5Plot: 5/5Originality: 5/5Overall: 5/5Anastasia is the princess no one needs: the fourth daughter born to an emperor with a son, and the only royal lacking a magical gift. Until she collided with a young Cossack rebel, changing both their lives forever.I cannot even begin to explain how much I loved this book. I didn’t realise to begin with that it’s loosely based on historical events but with a HEA ending and of course a touch of magic. This is a chunky 600+ page book and I flew through it like it was nothing, it held me captive for hours.Reading this story as fiction was magical enough but then absolutely heartbreaking knowing the real story of Anastasia and linking it in with this retelling was amazing. Sophie Lark did a brilliant job with this book, creating an absolutely spellbinding read. I honestly could not put this book down and will be recommending it to everyone until I’m blue in the face! AMAZING!